India is a country of festivals. Our cultural diversity ensures that we have celebrations of some sort or the other every month and these extend to our friends, family members and neighbours. An integral part of the festive season is giving gifts and youngsters, in particular, make a lot of money from elders who give them cash as a form of blessings. Prepaid gift cards are fast picking up as a trend, replacing cash gifts with a more graceful and well-thought-of plastic money.

Mostly, they are preferred by corporates for giving Diwali or Christmas gifts as they come with many tax benefits but, lately, even individuals are lapping up this option as they are easily available in the market.

What are prepaid gift cards?

Prepaid gift cards are basically designed like debit cards and can be purchased from banks, retail stores, vendors or online merchant sites. They come preloaded with a cash value from the vendor and the customer simply needs to purchase their desired value, which generally ranges in rounded figures from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 and above.

Anyone who wishes to gift a prepaid gift card must visit the bank or store from which they would like to purchase it (in case of banks, the buyer must have an account there) and purchase the gift card with the desired value. Once the amount has been added and the card approved, it is ready to use.

The recipient of the gift card may use it for purchasing products from any store that has a card machine. They are also given a PIN number to check the balance at any ATM machine, which is handy, as the entire gift card amount needn’t be spent on a single swipe.

Essential features

Some of the essential features of prepaid gift cards are:

a) They are powered by Mastercard, Visa or American Express; hence, they can be swiped just like one’s debit or credit card.

b) They come in single currency mostly (i.e., rupees). However, if you want, you can avail international gift cards with American Express, which can be swiped in select countries.

c) Prepaid gift cards mostly come with a validity of up to one year. They can be reloaded by the issuing bank, but they are not transferable or refundable.

As per RBI guidelines, the receiver’s details must also be provided to the bank for security reasons. Some banks offer personalisation options, whereby the recipient name and